Dr. McKechnie is the Interim Pastor at Sardis Presbyterian Church. Dave reveals, "I wake up enthusiastic about each new day-anticipating new things happening in my life, in the lives of my family, and in the lives of other members of the Body of Christ." Join us at Sardis Presbyterian Church for worship at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. each Sunday.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Guest Post: Built my life around you...

With Mick Fleetwood before the show

On June 24th, I indulged myself in one of my passions, Fleetwood
Mac, who took Time Warner Arena by storm. They are still awesome 38 years after Stevie
Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham joined the band. All things Fleetwood Mac related
are an ingrained part of my life and I’m actually lucky enough to have 2
degrees of separation (that may as well be 2 light-years at times) from Stevie. That connection is partly where the interest stems from. I call it interest
but friends of mine call it obsession and suggest 12-step programs.

No one, aside from my “Sister of the Moon” Michelle, can
truly understand my heart’s ability to connect with the band’s story and their
music. Some of my younger college students, when they hear that the band and
their solo efforts comprise well over half of my iPod, and a good portion of my
spending money, ask “Fleetwood who?” After I pick myself off the floor, I shake
my head and don’t even try to explain.

Up close and personal

At this particular show, we were flush up against the stage directly
in front of Lindsey Buckingham’s microphone. In this picture, yes, those are my
arms resting on the stage at his feet. In fact, just before introducing a song
from the 1987 Tango In The Night
Album, Lindsey leaned down and asked us, after hearing us cheering wildly for
it, if we’d even been born when that album came out. I’m sure I’ll be flattered...once I recover from my fainting spell.

Overall, I’m rather private with most of my
experiences at their shows. I have my favorite songs and moments, most of them
involving the personal interactions between Nicks and Buckingham. I'll hold them
tightly inside until they, as a group, or Stevie or Lindsey solo, tour again.
But one of my favorite places in the show comes during a song that
admittedly, isn’t even one of my top
five loves.

Imagine writing a song that is so popular you can’t even
hear yourself sing it because the arena audience of close to 15,000 is singing
it to you (complete with cell phone glow in place of lighters). Over the years,
Stevie has given myriad explanations for the song Landslide, but in 2003 finally admitted that she wrote it about her
(then, possibly now–only they know for sure) boyfriend, Lindsey. (No, people
under 25–Landslide was not written
by the Dixie Chicks). In it she sings, “I’ve been afraid of changing, ‘cause I
built my life around you. But time makes you bolder, even children get older
and I’m getting older too.”

Stevie is fiercely independent; Lindsey, the type to need
dependency from others. The combination apparently made for some volatile times
for them in the seventies. The two were united by a mutual love for music and
each other, but at the time were both slowly smothering the other in different
ways. Stevie’s words, that she had designed her life around Lindsey, are backed
up by the stories they tell us. Ultimately, she had committed the number one
no-no: living for someone else first.

We know how easy this is. We become immersed in living for
everything else other than a whole-hearted devotion and life built around the
Lord. He ends up taking backseat. When we examine a typical 24
hour period, we can’t explain where the time has gone, or why we weren’t able
to fit a minute in for Him. I often wonder if we can’t find five minutes here
on earth, what in the world will we do with Him for eternity? And unlike Stevie,
who wanted to let go of someone and feared striking out on her own, we
are afraid to change to reach out to someone. To Him.

The bright side is that time itself often takes care
of this dilemma for us. We grow older. Age and time bring a realization
that, whether we’re still afraid of it or not, change comes. With the painful lessons of life, He molds and shapes us…and through the
experience and wisdom of time we begin to build our lives around Him.

Heather Eddy, Assistant Director of Christian Education, is a guest post crowd favorite, and we look forward to hearing more from her this summer. It's rumored that she will be leading a Connect @Sardis series on Religion and Culture in 2014. If you've enjoyed her writing, you should definitely make plans to attend.

3 comments:

So glad you enjoyed the concert, Heather. I love watching Fleetwood Mack on YouTube performing with the USC Marching Band - what energy. And you did a great job tying their music and your thoughts with our Faith. I must add one of the FM concerts on my bucket list. Many thanks for sharing your experiences. Blessings...